Wimbledon 2010: Andy Murray is free from the burden of great expectations

The weekend before the Wimbledon Championships, and still 'Andy-monium' hasn't broken out; so far this summer there has been more interest in plastic trumpets than there has been in Andy Murray's chances of winning on the All England Club grass.

Low profile: Andy Murray has attracted surprisingly little attention in the run up to WimbledonPhoto: REUTERS

It has been so low-key for Murray this year that there have hardly been any mentions during his preparations of some former British player called Fred Perry, and when the Scot opens up on Tuesday afternoon he will not be lugging a racket bag loaded up with national expectation, hope and hyperbole. To really get noticed at the tennis, Murray should bring some bagpipes.

To suggest that Murray has been drowned out by the vuvuzelas in South Africa would be to oversimplify the situation, since his lower profile also has much to do with his iffy form since his defeat to Roger Federer in the final of January's Australian Open.

In the months since that disappointing, teary night at Melbourne Park, Murray has won 11 matches and lost eight, and he has not reached another semi-final, never mind another final.

Last summer, Murray arrived at Wimbledon as the Queen's Club champion, and wearing some retro Fred Perry playing kit as a tribute to the centenary of the birth of the last British man to have won this tournament, but this year he goes into Wimbledon after losing in the third round at the Kensington warm-up.

He has switched clothing suppliers, and as no one called Adidas has ever held up Wimbledon's Challenge Cup, there is no danger of the polo-shirt on his back adding to the pressure and tension he feels before he plays Jan Hajek, of the Czech Republic, for the first time on the tour.

That expectations are lower than they could have been might not be such a bad thing for Murray, especially as he does not care for fame and for close-ups. "It hasn't been as busy as last year," Murray said yesterday.

During the last World Cup year, the summer of 2006, there was much more attention on Murray during the build-up, even though he had also had a difficult few months leading up to the grass-court season. Perhaps the difference is that, unlike four years ago, Murray is no longer a young kid; he has lost 'the power of new'.

"I've been in that same goldfish bowl before Wimbledon, so I know what it's like, and I think it will be marginally easier for Murray with the expectations that bit lower," said Tim Henman, who played in four semi-finals at the All England Club.

"When it's a World Cup year, it's maybe a little more relaxed. But as a player you have to try to be oblivious to everything that is going on around you. The more you can be unaware of everything that is happening, the better it is."

Still, with every round that Murray negotiates, he will also attract more attention and expectation. There is the small matter of the Queen making her first visit to Wimbledon since she watched Virginia Wade win the ladies' singles title in 1977.

If Murray knocks out Hajek, he will make an appearance in front of the Queen on Thursday, when he would play Finland's Jarkko Nieminen or Austria's Stefan Koubek, and there will doubtless be much interest in whether he effs and blinds within earshot of the monarch.

Federer is the King of Grass, and he will be attempting to win that golden trophy for the seventh time while Rafael Nadal won on his last appearance in 2008. Murray is arguably the next most likely champion, ahead of Andy Roddick, say, or Novak Djokovic.

A couple of years ago, Murray made his first Wimbledon quarter-final, losing to Nadal, and last summer he improved on that by appearing in a first semi-final, when he was stopped by an exceptional performance from Roddick.

This year, he has a kind draw. If Murray goes on to win this tournament, who will care that he had a horrible spring, including losing his opening matches in Miami and Monte Carlo? Murray knows that his life would change if he won in a fortnight's time, as he would go from Andy Murray, tennis player, to Andy Murray, Britain's first male Wimbledon champion for 74 years.

"Being the Wimbledon champion would be very difficult and something you would have to learn to live with, but I would want to do it," Murray said earlier in the week, while sitting in the private dining room of a pub near his home in Surrey.

There seems to be a general agreement within tennis that Murray was affected for some time by what happened at Melbourne Park, when he lost in straight sets and then broke down during the prize-giving ceremony.

"It's not easy to accept losing the final of a grand slam sometimes," Nadal said of Murray. "Mentally that could have been difficult for Andy. But Andy has amazing talent, and he's a great competitor. He's an amazing player so he can win here."